Hello everyone, thank you for being here with us this afternoon, and thank you Dan for your kind words.  From one McGill alum to another, it’s nice to see you proudly representing Canada here in Silicon Valley.

Folks, it’s a pleasure to be here at AppDirect in San Francisco.  We’re on our second leg of a four-day visit to the U.S.  Yesterday we were in Chicago where I met with both the Mayor and the Governor of Illinois.  I also spoke at the University of Chicago, chatted with David Axelrod.  This morning, we landed in San Francisco and the first thing I did was participate in a diversity and equality roundtable at Salesforce alongside Marc Benioff and tech leaders.  And the timing for this roundtable was actually pretty great since today Salesforce announced that they will be investing $2 billion in Canada over the next five years creating thousands of good, middle class jobs for Canadians. 

And the day has only gotten better. I just wrapped up a tour of the AppDirect offices.  As Dan mentioned, this visit is more than just an office tour.  Today AppDirect, a company with significant presence in Canada already, has announced that they will be investing even further in Canadian talent and in Canadian communities.  By opening a new office in Toronto and hiring more engineers in Montreal and Calgary, today’s announcement will mean 300 new, good jobs for Canadian workers.  And this partnership makes sense.  Technology companies have increasingly been looking to Canada to lay down roots.  Not just a couple of Canadian kids who came down here to Silicon Valley to make right and then come home, we have big companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Thomson Reuters... all companies that have significantly expanded their presence in Canada lately.  And with good reason. Canadian innovation and Canadian talent is second to none.  Add to that our low business costs and our educated workforce, and it becomes clear that choosing Canada is the smart move.

We’re very happy with today’s news and we know that with AppDirect’s continued expansion into Canada, we’ll strengthen our economy and help further position our country as a world leader in tech.  Later today, I’ll be meeting with a number of business leaders to talk about investment opportunities in Canada, and this evening I’ll be discussing the Canada/U.S. economic partnership at a dinner hosted by the Business Council.  Tomorrow, I’ll meet with the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor before heading to Los Angeles to deliver a keynote speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the first few days of this trip as we look to strengthen the ties between our two countries, underlying the importance of trade and investment, and talk with leaders about why Canada is such a great place to do business.

Once again, I want to thank Dan, who’s hosting us here today. It’s a pleasure to be partnering with you following AppDirect’s recent investments in Canada; this is great news for Canadian workers, and our government will continue to work hard so people all over the world learn about the Canadian Advantage.